white shadows
by fall from stars
Summary: ONESHOT—In the one room that matches their color, white white white. [Riku ReplicaxNaminé]


**A/N:** Katla back with another KH thing! This one's a strange implied Namine/Repliku, which first came to me when I was RPing Namine on Polychromatic and she was talking to the replica. The mun called him Nise, based on his Japanese title of Nisemomo, and so it got plopped here as well.

I never got through **Chain of Memories**, considering that I'm only good at the hack-and-slash-ha-ha-you're-dead type deal. Taking justifications on both Namine and Repliku's characters 'cause of that. Lyrics from the song Namine remembers are from The Postal Service's tragically adorable song, "Nothing Better."

And so here we go.

**White Shadows**

She knows it before he even comes into the door. She scatters the drawings to break the silence that ensues. The papers show memories that do not concern him or her, but people who could pass as them, or the other way around. She crosses to the window, away from him, away from what she knows.

"You're going to fight again."

He sighs when he comes over and holds her close, as if he's going to say he's sorry. He won't, and she won't, because they both know they're missing the feelings they need to say so. She has no heart and he has something else missing.

When they hold each other, it's not as close as it once was, but close is close and both of them have learned not to be picky.

"Naminé," he says, quietly, so as not to disturb the memory.

She doesn't have the heart to tell him what she wants. She doesn't have a heart for anything, but she doesn't say it, especially because it will end up hurting him.

_You've got a lure I can't deny. But you've had your chance, so say goodbye, _the memory-song said, the one about the bride who said "I'd like to marry you, but no, thank you."_ Say goodbye._

She uses no words because she wants to believe what she does before all battles. He'll come out alive, even if it hurts Sora or the other boy…whose name she won't and can't say, though she will remember it.

_Riku_…

Riku, who is here but not here.

She banishes those memories because all they do is make her feel like she…cares about...a shadow.

She reaches out to, almost, touch his face. Her fingertips are lingering over his cheek, as if she's afraid she might bleach out what little color he's got left. The two of them are too white for any room but this one. And it's fitting that they met and kissed and whispered promises here…in the one room that can match their color.

"Be careful…?"

Two useless words, but it's the most she's got with her right now.

He smiles, strangely, in response, and somewhere out there there's a boy with that same smile. She doesn't want to think about how he's only a shadow, replicated in cold science. He's the only boy who looks like him. The only one she cares for.

"I will," he promises, an ill-suited wink ending his sentence, and he disappears.

But he won't be careful. She fusses in her room, worrying about it. She won't eat or draw, becoming a shell far from any beach.

XI and XII quickly grow bored with her on their routine visit to her, seeing her unresponsive and put out. They disappear for the night in a swirl of black cloaks, their laughs still floating in the air, sharp like knives in the dark.

And then he comes back, trying to be small in the shadows.

But the white light in the room is too much and she sees it: blood, streaming down his face in red rivers. She stifles a little scream and runs to him, eyes full of tears.

"Nise," she mourns, using a name that only she remembers and cares to use, "what _happened_?"

"Don't worry," he says, light and almost dizzy. "I'll be…fine in the morning, Naminé."

But he won't be fine. When she sees Axel passing by, his face gaunt underneath his coat, she begs for a cure-spell, anything to make the bleeding stop. Axel complies wordlessly, not looking at them except out of the corner of his eye.

Naminé gets the message and nods.

_This never happened_.

They are so used to things never happening that it doesn't even get a reaction out of them. But Nise's recovery does, and when he looks up at her, he sees Naminé smiling.

It's enough to make him smile too.

And they hold each other closer again, white shadows on a whiter wall.


End file.
